(Bad) air and (faulty) inspiration

elemental and environmental influences on Fontane

Evi Zemanek

pp. 129-145

in: Caroline Schaumann (ed), German ecocriticism in the anthropocene, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Theodor Fontane's obsession with air documented in his writings takes two very different forms. In his fiction, he assesses air quality in gendered terms so that men's comments on factory smoke and smells metaphorically reveal their social and political positions, whereas women's insatiable hunger for fresh air is symptomatic for their suffering in their marriages. In Fontane's letters and diaries, on the other hand, references to air relate to his specific "meteopathia," that is, his belief that his writing depended on "good air." This chapter contextualizes Fontane's works within the Anthropocene discourses, studying his reflections on the weather, "air cures," and the aerial transmission of bacteria in terms of contemporary discourses on miasma, traditional concepts of "inspiration," Buell's "toxic discourse," and Alaimo's "trans-corporeality."

Cited authors

Fontane Theodor